Here I am in Tijuana, across the border in Mexico. Staying in San Diego, it seemed enticing to enter the country where I've spent many happy visits.
Using my Spanish is important to me. As I tell people, study in your favorite classroom. For me it is shopping; discussing everything in their language; trying to get a good price. I had a desire to buy some leather goods. That made it a quest. Even better!
My partner and I had to take a taxi to get the main street with the stores. It was morning. Not every place was open. I saw this metal door, with stairs leading down. Intrigued,and following the way down, I came into this cavernous room filled with metal creations. I have done some welding. I like the ability to work in a grand size , and the freedom you get to always add on to the preceding piece.
The owner took us out to the back, where several men were welding gates and other items. Anything you can think of made from metal was in that building. All made in the alley outside. Lots of it shipped to our country.
What an adventure to see artists in another country creating. We are all different. We are all similar.
What can I say. I am vacationing in north San Diego. Even artists living in gorgeous Sedona need a change of scenery sometimes.
Since my studio is at my home, sometimes it feels like I never leave work. There is always a project to work on; a show coming up; the studio needing cleaning. That is the dilemma of the working artist.
I used to live at the beach, Venice to be specific. To get away I would go to the desert. Now that I live in high desert, I crave the cool ocean breeze and cold water adventure. That's life. Different can be good.
I will fill you in with an update when I get back.
Here I am with my recently handmade star books.Created in an open format, you can see how nicely these books fold into a star pattern, hence their name.
I am a calligrapher. I have years of training on writing many of the old alphabets out by hand. Since all older books were made by hand, before the printing press, it seemed a natural step for me to get into making books by hand also.Now it a separate art form known as book arts.
I chose maps as the covers for the front book. There are actually 3 pages in each fold. This gives it strength, and adds to the design element.Yet it folds up and becomes an ordinary looking book.
The book behind is called a star tunnel book. Like the other, it starts out as a basic concertina book. That term refers to the specific manner of folding one page so as to create many. Once again there are three pages, but on the inside layer, I have added pictures that fold out. Kind of a pop out style.I took small prints of tarot cards for my designs. Then comes the blue middle layer. I had to make a window for the tarot pictures to pop out of each fold, or page. The final, white page has an even bigger cut out, which creates a type of shadow effect.
All this looks easy, but I assure you, it is not. An exercise for the mind, as well as the hands. But what fun in the finished creations!
Here is a mixed media piece entitled Why Not. It is currently in the Born to Be Wild show at the Sedona Arts Center.
I love to work with letters.They can be painted on or cut out. I also like working with clay, and metal. This piece started with that circle of found metal. I wanted a rustic, outdoor feeling to represent the theme. What better canvas than wood? This is old barn wood, cut down, and fastened carefully on the other side.Strong wire using four eye hooks insures it will hang well.
People ask where I get my materials. I can't always remember. As an artist, collecting can be a valuable asset. Who wants to go to a store when the creative urge is working? Sometimes the materials themselves inspire a direction in art. All I know is that these beautiful pieces of copper I got at the junk yard, seemed to envision themselves as letters. Ah, the beauty of tin snips.
The clay letters had to be created, fired, and attached. I used a bronze, low fire glaze for the color,adding some copper acrylic paint to emphasize the metallic hue. There is also a small ceramic face in the upper right, resting on metal, surveying all below.
I am often asked what is the significance of the wording. Perhaps it is the universal who, what, when , and for me, why, we are told to include in any writing.
Usually, when the inspiration comes, I just follow.
I love making letters. I often use pen and ink, or watercolor on paper. Recently I have expanded into writing on clay. It is not only the joy of lettering that inspires me, I choose a word, or phrase that means something to me.
With this ceramic plaque, I carved out the letters in a clay slab, to which I added a decorative border. I like a feeling of dimension. Painting on four coats of low fire white glaze, the piece then goes into the kiln. Next comes a primitive firing to give that smokey look. Finally I use yarn , decorate with my ceramic bead, and it is ready to hang.
Why this particular message today? When I checked on my blog site, there was an audience from the Ukraine and Russia. How incredible that the internet goes so far. We are all connected on this earth. Thank you for reading my blog written in far away Sedona, AZ.
My wish is for peace for everyone.
I often tell people how similar the Verde Valley is to the savannas of east Africa, without the baobab trees.This photo was taken in the theme park named
" Out of Africa", not far from my home here in Sedona, Arizona.
I spent six months travelling by bus and by thumb around east Africa back when.It was always my dream to see the animals that were usually in zoos, in their real habitat.
I did take two " official" safaris, one in Kenya and the other in Tanzania. There I was able to photograph the animals in close proximity. For me, it felt like coming home. While that was years ago, I don't think the wild animals have changed their life style too much, except to accommodate we humans.
Here I am with a 17 foot python, which is actually from South America. Still, it is a wild animal. The audience gets to touch the snake. I think that fear of animals may be an acquired trait. It is not that we do not have to protect ourselves, but we are all part of the planet.Besides, they are so beautiful.
I have been drawing snakes in the abstract on my ceramic platters,and I always put at least one of those creatures on each porcelain pueblo. I also like "critters", as I call them, such as cats, birds, and horses on my clay work.
I like our connection with animals. I believe they inspire us to be creative as we include them, not only as symbols, but as our fellow creatures on this precious planet we all call home.
Here I am hiking with Charlie, a friend of mine, in the San Francisco peaks of Flagstaff, AZ. Her owner was taking the picture. Thanks, Laura.
I had forgotten how high it gets up there in the San Francisco Peaks. I am at
8,000 feet here, and I was feeling it as I climbed ever upward on this lovely Saturday morning.
In my artist bio, I always say that nature is the inspiration for my artwork. I choose to live in the lower altitude of Sedona, AZ. I love the red rocks, the dry heat, and not having to drive in snow. But this part of Arizona is seductive in summer. I am entranced by the smells; the soft breezes which make the branches of the evergreens talk to me; the vastness. It is so humbling when we get out into nature.
All I can do it to let it come out in a feeling or an image in my clay or calligraphy. At the very least, I take these sensations back to my studio. Somehow, nature will inspire me when I am creating. And you?
